Exclusive video: Islamic radicals taking over NSW's toughest jail
Exclusive pictures show convicted terrorists practicing their extreme beliefs, which saw them jailed, inside one of New South Wales' toughest prisons.
Some of them plotted to kill people on Sydney streets, but far from being rehabilitated behind bars, they're being further radicalised, a report in The Australian newspaper says.
This vision was secured by a News Corp journalist and Seven News has aired it for the first time.
Many of the men in the footage are imprisoned in the most secure wing of the infamous Supermax prison in Goulburn, 200 kilometres southwest of Sydney.
The Australian's National Security Editor Paul Maley said the prison is "a pretty intimidating and stressful environment".
The prisoners are locked away for 16 hours a day, deprived of the attention they crave and many yelled out to the camera in the footage.
Seven News agreed with Corrective Services not to show their faces.
Imprisoned together in Unit Nine at Supermax are the men that planned Australia's biggest terror plot; another who schemed a public execution, a plan to beheading a random member of the public in Martin Place.
An inmate who carved a message on the forehead of a war veteran, meaning an eye for an eye, is also held in the same wing.
The exclusive footage shows a ritual that plays out in the exercise yard five times a day - a large group of inmates kneeling to pray to Mecca.
Mr Maley has filed a special report for the Weekend Australian Magazine and was let in to the prison to investigate fears the state's most secure jail is a hotbed for terrorism.
"What was immediately clear to me was just how Islamified the Supermax prison population has become and just how hardcore they are in their beliefs," Mr Maley said.
"The clear impression I got was that virtually none of those guys had de-radicalised, none of those guys who went in there for terrorist offenses have forsaken their radical beliefs."
Australian National University terrorism Clarke Jones said that concern is very real.
"Goulburn SuperMax is not the best place for rehabilitation.
"It does create opportunities for radicalization where their ideological understanding of Islam in this case can be made worse."
What is of paramount concern now is that their radical beliefs may not been addressed before they are released from the jail.
